Suspended head of eThekwini Electricity, Maxwell Mthembu. Picture: Supplied
The eThekwini Municipality has paid R2.5 million in salary to a senior official who has spent 10 months on suspension.
This is despite the government’s announcement that suspended employees should be reassigned to other departments, pending their investigation.
Electricity head, Maxwell Mthembu, was suspended in March last year and charged for misconduct after he was accused by the city manager of failing to take action against employees who were engaged in a strike that was deemed illegal.
Mthembu’s request to be reassigned to other work was said to have been turned down.
He confirmed that he wrote a letter to the city’s Human Resources department to request for redeployment but was turned down. He refused to elaborate on the matter, saying he did not want to discuss the matter with the media.
“I can confirm that I am still on suspension with full pay,” said Mthembu.
Last year, Public Service Administration Minister Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi announced that the government was considering barring suspension with full pay.
In one of her State of the Province addresses, former premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube announced that instead of paying an employee while sitting at home, the government should instead reassign the affected employee.
There has been a concern that the government is wasting taxpayers’ money on the prolonged suspension of employees with full pay.
Mthembu’s matter is currently in the bargaining council.
Reacting to the suspension last year, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union dismissed it as illegal.
The union’s secretary in eThekwini, Xolani Dube, claimed that Mthembu could have been suspended for other motives.
Dube added that Mthembu was suspended while on leave, which is against the labour policy which stipulates that an employee must only be suspended while at work.
The city has refused to discuss the matter.
The municipality spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, said in the interests of natural justice and to avoid prejudicing the outcome of any disciplinary investigation, all disciplinary proceedings in the municipality are kept strictly confidential.
“The municipality does not initiate disciplinary processes via the media and will therefore not publicly discuss the outcomes of such processes,” said Sisilana.
willem.phungula@inl.co.za